Term 3, Week 10

Room 4 Newsletter:  Term 3, Week 10

Sunday 24th September, 2017

I trust everyone enjoyed Blossom Festival Weekend, as I’m sure all Alexandra’s visitors did. Well done to all those who competed in the Clock Race on Friday night, there was certainly a lot of teams competing and everyone showed commitment and good sportsmanship.

What a week we have coming up! The celebrations continue with our school’s WOW night on Wednesday, so please do join us for a picnic tea at 5 pm followed by a range of performance items, then visits to classrooms to share in your child’s learning.

Important Dates coming up:

*Monday Whole School Prayer, 9 am in the Church, led by Room 4. Athletics rotations in the afternoon.

*Tuesday 26^th – Wednesday 27^th September: Class Speech Eisteddfods.

*Wednesday Parish Mass led by Room 5 at 9 am in the Church.

*Wednesday 27^th September: Dance with Mrs Chamberlain after Mass & Writer’s Workshop 11.40 am. Athletics Rotations in the afternoon.

*WOW Night: 5-7 pm Wednesday 27^th September. Celebrating our whole school’s Learning.

*Thursday 28^th September: Dance with Mrs Chamberlain at 11.40 am. Māori Cultural Performance at 1.45 pm in the hall.

*Eisteddfod Assembly: Friday 1.30 pm, 29^th September. Last day of term.

Kimberley’s speech

Mhoroi zita rangu ndinonzi Kimberley. Does anyone  know what I just said?

Hi my name is Kimberley and today my speech will be about my crazy family tree. I chose this speech because my family has an interesting history. Hope you enjoy.

I will start with my mum. My mums great -grandparents were from South Africa and they moved to Zimbabwe to settle down as farmers. They gave birth to my mums Grandmother Ella and Ella gave birth to my grandma Ephania. So that means my mum has Zimbabwean and South Africa heritage.    

Now my dad. My great-grandparents were from Scotland and Portugal. Unknowingly after arriving in Africa all of his great-grandparents settled in Mozambique because of its location. Due to war and conflict their kids who became my dads grand- parents moved to Zimbabwe and my Grandparents met in Harare. So that means my dad has Scottish and Portuguese heritage.

To sum it all up I have Scottish  , Portuguese, South African and Zimbabwean heritage. That's why I called it my crazy family tree. I hope you enjoyed my speech.

Have a great last week of term everyone. Markelle Ward

ROUND CLOCK RACE

"Here are our teams for the Round the Clock Race this Friday night. In order to enter every team needs three adults to supervise and support them (one adult at the start/finish and two adults on the hill). Can you please look at which team your child is in and confirm with Mr Yeoman immediately if you can be present to supervise. Entries are due immediately! Kia ora"

Rockets team(10)  = Paddy, Olly, Seb, Thomas, Hayvin, Sully, Adam, Mason, Kayla, Immy

Mountain goats team (9) = Cody, Lachie, Charlie D, Grainne, Harry, Millie, Ana, Zaria,  Mika

Chamois team (9) = Ethan, Rafferty, Jack S, Dilan, Jack O,Pippa, Hannah, Mayce, Tadhg

Round the Clock Race

Round-the-clock Race
Hi all,

Once again we can enter some school teams in this race that starts at the Linger and Die at 4:45 on Friday.
We can only have 10 to a team, which will be mixed by Mrs Lyon. A minimum of 3 parents are needed for each team.
Please email either

• chrisbeilby@stgerards.school.nz or 
• carolynlyon@stgerards.school.nz 

Entries need to made on-line this year a couple of days before the event so get your name in quickly.

Term 3, Week 9

Room 4 Newsletter:  Term 3, Week 9

Sunday 17^th September, 2017

Important Dates coming up:

*Monday Whole School Prayer, 9 am in the Church, led by Room 7.

*The Gathering – This Friday, all day, is a Professional Development Day for teachers in Catholic schools throughout the Southland and Otago dioceses. School is OPEN on this day and will be staffed. Please advise whether or not your child will be at school on this day. A reminder that the St. Gerard’s Kapa haka group will be presenting a welcome at The Gathering, and will need to be at The Cellar Door by 8.45 am. Any parent helpers to walk these students back to school afterwards will be very much appreciated.

*WOW Night: 5-7 pm Wednesday 27^th September. Celebrating our whole school’s Learning.

*Thursday 28^th September, 1.45 pm in the Church: Māori Cultural Performance.

*Eisteddfod Assembly: Friday 1.30 pm, 29^th September. Last day of term.

Speech Eisteddfods:

Progress with speech eisteddfods is varied. I have scheduled up to 40 minutes per day for speech preparation, practise, writing notes on cards, researching a topic, and conferencing. Most children are making excellent use of this time, and this is reflected in the content of their speech and their organisation.

Please ask your child where they are at with their speech, and ask them to show you what they have done so far, and to read it out loud to you. I have asked them to make their speech a home/school team effort, so that their eisteddfod will be the best that it can be.

WOW Night:

It’s not long now till our WOW night, where each class will be show-casing their learning. In Room 4 you can share your child’s bookwork, see projects displayed around the room, discuss and view their Inquiry investigations, share their artwork, play some maths games, and much more! We look forward to having you join us.

Have a great week.

Markelle Ward J

WOW NIGHT- KEEP THE DATE

Term 3, Week 8

Room 4 Newsletter:  Term 3, Week 8

Sunday 10^th September, 2017

Important Dates coming up:

*Social Justice Week and Māori Language Week 10^th – 14^th September.

*Mon-Wed 11-13^th September: Welcome to the Special Character Review Team who will be in our School on these days.

*Monday Whole School Prayer, 9 am in the Church, led by our Special Character leaders.

*Confirmation: 12^th September – 6 pm in the Church. All welcome, and welcome Bishop Colin.

*Wednesday Mass, 9 am in the Church, led by Room 3.

*Friday 15^th September: Room 4 Gymnastics 11.40 am – 12.25 pm.

*Friday 22^nd September – The Gathering: A Professional Development Day for teachers in Catholic Schools. Our school will remain open on this day.

*WOW Night: 5-7 pm Wednesday 27^th September. Celebrating our whole school’s Learning.

*Thursday 28^th September, 1.45 pm in the Church: Māori Cultural Performance.

*Eisteddfod Assembly: Friday 1.30 pm, 29^th September.

Social Justice Week:

This week you will hear all about Social Justice Week. At the heart of the message are these scriptures:

‘Love one another just as I have loved you’ (John Ch.15 v 12) and

‘Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law’ (Romans 13v8).

The theme of this year’s Social Justice Week is ‘Weaving the bonds of Belonging’ and Knowing our Neighbours. The children will have in their homework clear files a Connection Card activity to support them to do some specific things to build relationships in their home, family and at community level.

On a wider level, we can pray for those suffering natural disasters at the moment, especially people in

Florida, who are being hit with devastating winds, heavy rain and huge waves from Hurricane Irma.

Nearly seven million people have been ordered to leave their homes in the largest evacuation in United States history.

Speech Eisteddfods:

Eisteddfod time will quickly be upon us again and we are underway with preparing our speeches. Children may choose whatever topic they like to do a speech on, but they are also welcome to use the information they are learning from their Inquiry to write their speech. We are also adding ‘Did you know?’ statements to our Inquiry wall in the corridor this week with some fascinating facts we are learning about the ocean and its creatures.

Have a great week everyone.

Markelle Ward J

Term 3, Week 7

Room 4 Newsletter:  Term 3, Week 7

Monday 4^th September, 2017

Important Dates coming up:

*Thursday 7^th September: CRT – Dance with Mrs Chamberlain: 8.55 – 11.15 am.

*Thursday 7^th September: Parent Meeting for Confirmation, 7 pm at Father Pat’s house.

*Friday 8^th September: Gymnastics 11.40 am – 12.25 pm.

*Confirmation: 12^th September – 6 pm in the Church.

Year 3 & 4 Ski Day last week:

Congratulations to the Year 3 & 4’s from Room 3 & 4 for their amazing effort and commitment at our Ski Day to the Snow Farm on Thursday last week. The weather held out for us and everyone had a really good go at skiing. Thank you so much to the parents who joined us, and for those driving the extra vehicles. There were some tired people on the bus coming home but the energy levels stayed high right till we got back!!

Inquiry:

Room 4’s Inquiry is well underway, with the big question being ‘What else is in the water?’ We started by discussing some of the things we knew already (prior knowledge), then we came up with more questions. 

ICT time has included exploring a whole range of wild and wonderful creatures that exist under the ocean. Reading time has included texts on an ocean theme, including an amazing you-tube clip about how deep the ocean is and what exists in the ocean depths? Science has included a look at what is on the ocean floor, and what does it feel like? We made ‘oobleck’, a squidgy mixture that is both a solid and liquid. We learned that it is a lot like quicksand, and we need to do some more investigation to see what the ocean floor actually looks and feels like. And did you know scientists believe that only 5% of the ocean has been explored? That’s a huge 95% of the ocean left to be discovered!!!!

Have a great week.

Regards, Markelle Ward J